I used to shop at a little grocery store named Schneck’s, after the family who’d opened and run it for 50 years. My English students once called it the “claustrophobia store” because it was so small. But it was a truly mighty store!
You could find most anything you wanted on their shelves, and they were usually willing to order what you couldn’t. They had the best meat, with a butcher who could tell you how to cook it. They bought their produce locally, fresh and in season. Everyone who worked there was friendly. They knew me by name, and if ever I was short of funds, they just put my groceries “on account.” They closed awhile back, and I miss them.
Several years back I ran into an old boyfriend in Schneck’s. He’s from a rather well-to-do family. He reacted to seeing me with a surprised, “How can you afford to shop at Schneck’s?”
And I answered: “I can’t afford to not shop at Schneck’s.” I went on to give him a lesson in “real” math.
For one thing, prices at Schneck’s weren’t that much higher than the other local grocery stores, especially on “fresh” items like meat and produce. Canned goods were sometimes higher, true, and they didn’t run incredible sales like the bigger stores, but the differences were often within a ten-cent range.
At first, I bought only “good deals” at Schneck's, going elsewhere for the “expensive” stuff--like toilet paper, kitty litter and Campbell’s soup. But somewhere along the way, I realized that it was costing me as much in gasoline to drive to the other stores as I was saving, and it took a lot more time. Little by little, I stopped shopping around and shopped more at Schneck’s.
By the time I ran into my old friend, I was shopping at Schneck’s almost exclusively.
“If I don’t shop at Schneck’s,” I told him, “they will go out of business, and I will be at the mercy of the "big guys." That is what I can’t afford (Sniff!).”
It wasn’t long after that that Martin’s (a bigger guy) came to town. They were tempting at first--a nice bright store--clean and shiny. They beat Schneck’s on prices, and had my favorite gourmet items too! Many of the workers at Schneck’s got jobs there.
I can’t remember who closed first, but the local D & W (another independently owned grocery that had just expanded to two locations) and Schneck’s both went out of business; Martin’s purchased the D & W in a nearby town. Yet another store is showing signs of stress. People whisper that it’s next.
In the meantime, prices have gone up at Martin’s, and the gourmet goodies have disappeared.
Now I’m not naming names to point fingers and tick people off. These stores are just doing business the way business is done. I’m not decrying capitalism either. But I am saying that where you shop has an effect.
Recently Wal-Mart has been in the news because of these same issues. Many communities are voting against new Wal-Mart stores because they tend to suck customers away from the small mom-and-pop businesses. They also practice questionable labor practices, using more part-timers to avoid paying the benefits they would need to pay full-time employees.
The author of one New York Times story suggests that we, as customers, are burning the candle at both ends--our quest for savings creates an impoverished class that will need to rely on government benefits to survive (and "we" fund the government).
When I shopped at Schneck’s, I knew my money stayed in the community. The extra dime I spent on a can of soup bought me friendly service, and let the Schneck family retire comfortably.
The Walton family, who owns Wal-Mart, does not live in my community, nor even near it. They do not know my name. Family members rank quite high on Fortune magazine’s list of the richest people, with worths well into the billions of dollars. Society considers the Wal-Mart story the fulfillment of “the American dream.” Real math says not.
Thomas Jefferson’s vision for America was not of conglomerate Wal-Marts, where a few get rich on the backs of many. Jefferson’s ideal was of a lot of Schneck’s-like stores, where a community supports, and is supported by people who know each other, care about each other and take pride in providing the goods and services they do.
When I make billionaires of a few, at the expense of my neighbors, I’m shooting myself in the foot--that’s real math.
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